The Big Event Approach-eth

This weekend is the Big Event: Grandma's Marathon.

This is Wayne's second marathon. He ran his first last October in Ashland, Wisconsin, where he came to within three minutes of qualifying for Boston. Had it not been for painful calf cramps the last five miles, he probably would've qualified.

He only began running October of 2008, on a drunken dare of sorts. We have friends and former neighbors who had come back to Minnesota to visit over Halloween. While out visiting on a Friday night, the husband informed Wayne that he was going to run the Halloween 5K race prior to the big Anoka Halloween parade -- Wayne let him know that even without training for said 5K, he could kick that man's behind. So Saturday morning, hangover and all, they both set out for Anoka for the challenge, which Wayne won, but only, according to Jim (Wayne's competition), because Jim was slowing up to accompany a first-time 5K-er on her run.

Eighten months later, Wayne is running his second-ever marathon, trying for a Bostom qualifying time.

This is his personal goal. His quest. The reason why he's been getting up at 5 am weekdays to get a few miles in before work. The reason he leaves the house at 7 am Sunday mornings for his "long runs," i.e. 22 miles or so of training.

He and I are leaving tomorrow morning to head up to Duluth -- our nephew and his wife will be arriving at our house in the afternoon to pick up our girls from their respective places and spend the weekend with them at our home.

I hope to have decent phone coverage in Duluth -- look for updates via Facebook or Twitter. I hope the last one reads like this:

Boston Bound.